Category: Monitoring

A witness told Anti Raids Network that 6 or 7 immigration officers entered a small corner shop, almost inside the station. There was no police presence. 5 people started to film the actions of the UKBA officers, but were told they couldn’t film.

The UKBA officers were very aggressive. One person was assaulted by a UKBA officer in the street, held by the neck and threatened with a baton. Another bystander was threatened with arrest for filming.

The shop owner said has been there for 27 years. He was out of the shop at the time of the raid, on lunch, but two people were arrested and taken to the UKBA HQ in Croydon. It is unclear if they were people working in shop or customers. All UKBA officers but one had their numbers covered or not visible.

These photos show the empty tables and half-eaten meals that resulted from the UKBA raid, where the owner was forced to turn away customers despite having no ‘illegal’ workers. Details below.

At 3pm, 2 UKBA vans and approximately a dozen enforcement officers raided a Chinese restaurant in Dalston Junction.

They raided the Noodle Bar, while some of the officers stayed in their vans. The UKBA entered the premises and told the owner to stop. They pushed him aside and forced him to sign paperwork authorising a search.

The restaurant owner was then made to tell his six staff to stop cooking and serving customers. Customers began to feel intimidated, leaving the restaurant and abandoning plates full of food. The officers stayed in the premises until nearly 4pm. There were no arrests, since all workers there had the right to work. The owner told the Anti Raids Network that he felt it was racist, saying, “we work to provide food for them” and “they only come for us”. The ARN member asked who is ‘us’? He said “Asians and other businesses, African, Turkish”. He added, “we’re British no problem, we work, pay tax and have no problem, but they come here and now we lost business”.

Two people from the Anti Raids Network were on hand to monitor the raid, filming the officers, as well as informing customers and workers of their rights.